David Jolly defeats Alex Sink in Florida 13th

Republican David Jolly narrowly defeated Democrat Alex Sink in the special election for Florida’s 13th District on Tuesday in an unusually expensive race watched closely by both parties as the midterm election season kicks into high gear.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Jolly beat Sink, 48.5 percent to 46.6 percent, according to The Associated Press.

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Both Democrats and the GOP plowed millions of dollars into the swing district race in hopes of an election year boost. The results appeared to vindicate the strategy of the GOP, which focused its attacks on linking Sink to Obamacare and managed to win with an untested candidate who had frustrated many in the national party.

Sink was “ultimately brought down because of her unwavering support for Obamacare, and that should be a loud warning for other Democrats running coast to coast,” National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Greg Walden said in a statement.

Democrats countered that Sink, the party’s 2010 gubernatorial candidate and Florida’s former chief financial officer, had done fairly well considering the environment, and noted that another vote for the seat is just a few months away.

“Alex put this district in play despite Republicans spending $5 million against her, and she came closer to victory in a historically Republican district than any Democrat has in decades,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel said in a statement. “Democrats will fight for FL-13 in the midterm, when the electorate is far less heavily tilted toward Republicans.”

Jolly, a former Washington lobbyist, will succeed GOP Rep. Bill Young, who passed away in October after serving for more than four decades in the House. During his long tenure, Young earned a reputation as a powerful appropriator, using his perch to deliver federal dollars to the defense community and to his district.

National Republicans had reservations about Jolly. In the week before the election, a number of GOP operatives described to POLITICO a chaotic, disjointed campaign that struggled to raise money and had staff located in the state capitol, hundreds of miles from where the race was being held.

But on Tuesday night, Jolly was praised by GOP leaders, with Walden saying he would be “a dedicated and thoughtful representative.”

“This has been a remarkable journey, not just for me, for our entire … community,” the 41-year-old Jolly said at his victory party, according to the Tampa Bay Times. “I am honored and am humbled to have received the support.”

Both parties bet big on the race. National Republican groups — hoping to exploit a political environment that’s tilting in their favor — combined to spend nearly $5 million, much of it on tying Sink to the unpopular Affordable Care Act and painting her as a steadfast ally of President Barack Obama. Democrats, meanwhile, poured in nearly $4 million, much of it on portraying Jolly as a cold-hearted opponent of entitlement programs and abortion rights.

The spending by the outside groups helped make the race one of the most expensive congressional battles in recent memory.

For Democrats, the stakes were particularly high. The party is facing a daunting, 17-seat climb to the House majority, and its outlook for the midterm election is gloomy. A number of veteran Democratic House members have announced their retirements in recent weeks, choosing to forgo what would likely be another two years in the minority.

Democrats had hoped that defeating Jolly would show that they could beat the GOP’s anti-Obamacare offensive. Sink had embraced the national Democratic Party’s “fix it, don’t repeal it” mantra, which candidates across the country are expected to adopt this year.

Underscoring the importance Democrats had placed on the contest, former President Bill Clinton last week recorded a robocall, urging voters to support Sink.

The race’s landscape, however, was a challenging one for Democrats. The district, which is made up almost exclusively of white voters and has a slight GOP registration advantage, has long tilted conservative. And many of the voters there have fond recollections of Young, whom Jolly once worked for.

Sink’s campaign had hoped she could eke out a victory by turning out the Democratic base, capturing a solid majority of independent voters and peeling off some Republican support.

And Sink, 65, made a point of trying to woo independents and Republicans. In her final TV advertisement of the campaign, Sink said: “We’ve got big challenges, and we need someone who can work across the aisle to take them on. … Bringing Republicans and Democrats together — that’s what I’ve always done. And that’s what I’ll do in Congress.”

Jolly, meanwhile, spent much of the race casting himself as a solid conservative, hammering home his opposition to Obamacare and tough-on-immigration views. Jolly allies believed that if they could limit Republican defections and take a chunk of independents, they could win.

Sink, a well-known figure in Florida politics, began the race as the favorite. She collected piles of cash from donors spread across the country, and she glided to her party’s nomination unopposed in the primary. Jolly, an untested candidate, emerged from the GOP primary practically broke.

But national GOP groups soon came to Jolly’s rescue, filling the TV airwaves with commercials blasting Sink. Democratic organizations hit back, airing spots highlighting everything from his lobbyist background to his views on entitlement programs.

As Sink conceded Tuesday night — “It’s disappointing,” she said — some of her supporters shouted, “November! November!” according to the Tampa Bay Times. The Democrat did not, however, say whether she would run again for the seat in this year’s general election, the newspaper reported.